Antony Waterlow killings: coroner recommends law changes in response to death of curator Nick Waterlow and daughter

Updated
Fri 10 Jan 2014, 8:17 PM AEDT

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Waterlow deaths spark call for mental health changes

7pm TV News NSW

An inquest into the stabbing death of Sydney art curator Nick Waterlow has prompted a coroner to recommend changes to the state's Mental Health Act to make it easier to force people to undergo treatment.

Antony Waterlow killed his father Nick and sister Chloe Heuston at her Randwick home in November 2009.

Two years later he was found not guilty of their murders by reason of mental illness because of the paranoid schizophrenia he was suffering from at the time.

New South Wales Deputy State Coroner Paul McMahon has now completed a review of the deaths and today handed down his findings.

"The circumstances of the death of Nicholas Waterlow and his daughter Chloe Heuston can best be described as a love story that, like so many love stories, ends in tragedy," Mr McMahon said in his findings.

Antony Waterlow refused to take medication

Last year the inquest heard Antony Waterlow's family reported his erratic and sometimes violent behaviour for almost a decade before the killings, but no health practitioner ever considered him ill enough to be detained.

Antony Waterlow repeatedly rejected suggestions that he should take anti-psychotic medication.

Dr Alistair Peter McGeorge from St Vincent's Hospital told the inquest in February that Antony Waterlow did not want to take medication from 2006 to 2007, despite hearing voices in his head.

Dr McGeroge said the patient was not forcibly detained because he voluntarily kept in contact with the mental health unit.

Today the coroner has recommended that the Mental Health Act be altered so that it is easier to force a person to receive treatment for a mental health problem.

Mr McMahon says the definition of serious harm in the act should be broadened to include emotional damage.

"At times it appeared to be thought that it was not possible to schedule Antony, even thought it was apparent that his psychosis was becoming more pronounced, and his quality of life - and that of his family and friends - was being seriously affected," he said in his findings.

"I consider that it would be appropriate for such changes to be considered in order to assist in clarifying the tests to be applied."

Nick Waterlow's former partner Juliette Darling says she hopes the changes are adopted.

"I just hope that Nick and Chloe didn't die in vain," she said.

Gaye Bell, a friend of Antony Waterlow who tried to help him for years, says the recommended changes might have saved the lives of his father and sister.

"It happened because we couldn't get help for Antony," she said.

"If we'd been able to get help for Antony, and it would've had to have been against his will, then this tragedy might not have played out."